On May 6, 2017, Surgery Team #28 arrived at the Mission of Hope hospital in Santa Cruz, Bolivia to provide a week of free ear, nose, throat, and thyroid surgeries. Patients came from all over Bolivia to receive the blessing of a life-changing surgery! Here are two of their stories.

Johan is a 16 year old Mennonite boy who lives with his mom and dad and 3 younger sisters on a farm about 3 hours from Santa Cruz. He enjoys helping his father out in the field, riding the tractor and harvesting the crops.
About 4 years ago, Johan started having difficulty breathing through the left side of his nose. He felt like he was continually having colds. His parents gave him many different medicines at home, but nothing seemed to help. The left side of his nose became completely blocked, and he felt a sensation of pressure on the left side of his face. This went on for several years. One day, his parents looked into his nose and saw something that did not look right. They searched for a doctor who could help them. After 3 months of making many trips to the city of Santa Cruz and spending a lot of money on medicine, they found a doctor who told them that Johan needed a surgery. They did not have money to pay for a surgery. Then Johan’s grandmother, who is one of our patients, told them about Mission of Hope where everything is free.
When the ENT surgery team from the US operated on Johan, they found a ball of fungus in the sinus cavity beneath his left eye about the size of a racquetball! The fungus had already spread down to the gum line of his upper teeth, and upwards it was pushing on his eye socket. It had also spread into the cavity just below his brain, which could have become very dangerous with time.
After the surgery, Johan felt immediate improvement! He could breathe freely on the left side for the first time in years, and he said his head felt “lighter.” Johan and his parents are so very thankful for Mission of Hope and the doctors who came!

Concepcion is a 52 year old lady who lives in Sucre, Bolivia. She and her husband have grown children but are now raising an 8 year old boy. When he was born, the birth mother did not want him, so Concepcion took the newborn baby home and raised him as her own. Her husband is a gardener but does not have work. Concepcion supports the family by gathering and selling flowers and greenery.

Concepcion had surgery to remove an enormous goiter. It was so large that she was having difficulty breathing and swallowing. We asked her how she heard about Mission of Hope. She said that God told her in a dream that there was a place where people got healed.

In her dream, God told her to walk the streets and look for a line of people, and there she would find healing. She had this same dream over and over for about a month. During this time, she would walk the streets selling her flowers and looking for the line of people.
One morning about 5 am, she was walking along a dirt road, and she saw a line of people. She asked someone in the line what they do at that place. The person replied, “Here, they heal people.” Concepcion got in the line and went in to see the doctor. She was at the Mission of Hope clinic in Sucre! The doctor told her that she needed to go to the Mission of Hope hospital in Santa Cruz to have surgery. So, she got on a bus at midnight and rode the bus for 16 hours to Santa Cruz. Concepcion’s life has totally changed! She looks and feels like a new person! Praise the Lord!

Read Guadalupe's story and Aly's story under Patient Stories on the Archive page!